


A Hawk, an Owl, a Falcon, and His Lovers

by matchsticks_p (matchsticks)



Series: Ornithomancer [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Birds, Crack Treated Seriously, Flirting, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Samtember, minor blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to suicidal ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 07:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4819892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matchsticks/pseuds/matchsticks_p
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam is losing a lot of sleep to help solve a bird dispute. Steve has concerns. Bucky doesn’t.</p><p>(Can be read as a companion piece to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/4408955">Ornithomancy</a>, or completely on its own.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Hawk, an Owl, a Falcon, and His Lovers

When it happens for the third night in a row, Steve decides they need to talk about it.

Sam has been unable to sleep through the night lately, getting up around the same time just before dawn and leaving without a word to either Steve or Bucky. He has to know that his departure wakes them, but he hasn't acknowledged it, which suggests it's not something he wants to discuss. Still, every night for three nights isn't something Steve can ignore. He doesn't come back to bed for hours, he isn't getting enough sleep, and the effects are starting to show in how tired and irritable he is increasingly becoming. 

Bucky doesn't like to confront people about things they clearly want to avoid. Steve understands this, but it doesn't stop him from giving Bucky looks of silent significance throughout the day, tilting his head toward Sam when he isn't looking and raising his eyebrows, because _it's Sam_. Bucky wants to let Sam come to them when he feels ready, but Steve is adamant, and eventually they come to a wordless compromise: they'll wait and see if it happens again, and if it does, they'll stop pretending to be asleep and at least ask if there's anything they can do.

Of course, it happens again. 

Bucky awakens to the feeling of the sheets dragging over his skin as Sam steals out of bed. A glance at the bedside clock tells him it's just after 0400. When Sam leans forward to tug the sheets back over their prone bodies, Bucky grabs him around the forearm. Sam inhales sharply.

"Where do you go?" Bucky asks.

"The roof," Sam whispers back.

Next to Bucky, Steve's body tenses. "For what?" he demands, more loudly than the pre-morning hush calls for. He doesn't like the thought of Sam toeing the cold hard ledge of a skyscraper after a heavy nightmare, but he can't bring himself to name his fear. 

"No, not for anything bad," Sam says soothingly, reaching out to brush a hand over Steve's forehead. "I just have something I need to take care of."

Bucky has not let go of his arm yet. He doesn't want to push, but he made an agreement with Steve, and he will follow it through. He squeezes slightly.

Sam sighs. 

"You know how even though we're humans, we can't naturally speak every human language? And we also can't talk to all the other primate species, even though we share some basic non-verbal communication? Well, it's like that with birds, too," he says, and Bucky wonders if Sam is trying to distract them, because he knows how entranced Bucky is by his bird stories.

"Well, for whatever reason, I can talk to all of them but they can't talk to each other, so I've been helping settle a bit of a territorial dispute", he continues. "There's an Eastern screech owl and a red-tailed hawk who've both made this area part of their hunting grounds, which isn't normally a problem since they have different nesting times, but they've been running into each other during twilight times and shit's getting real. The thing is, the hawk's a direct descendant of Pale Male,[1] so he's kind of raptor royalty and used to getting his way, and the owl would normally respect that but she's completely sure she was here first. It's just hard to prove in a convincing way because they don't keep time like we do, and anyway, the point is they were fighting about it right outside my window, and now I'm helping them negotiate an arrangement."

Steve is the first to break the long silence that comes after Sam's explanation. "What the heck is Pale Male?"

Sam looks at him like he just asked who the heck is Marvin Gaye, and says, "I don't have time for this right now. I'm fine and I'll be back in an hour, promise."

Bucky lets him go. In his absence, he turns back over to Steve and says, "How do you not know who Pale Male is? The first red-tailed hawk to nest on a New York building instead of a tree? He's the father of a whole dynasty of urban hawks."

"How do I...how do _you_ know that?"

"Sam's been teaching me about birds."

Steve doesn't reply and Bucky thinks maybe they're supposed to go back to sleep, but then he says quietly, "It's not that I don't want to learn about it. I just worry about him."

Bucky turns over more fully so they can lie in the dark with most points touching. "I know," he says.

*

The next night, when Sam gets up to head to the roof, Steve feels compelled to ask if he wants them to go with him.

Sam pulls a sweater over his head before replying. "That's very nice of you, but they are literally wild birds. They want to peck out my eyeballs half the time—they definitely won't show up if they see other humans there. You're off the hook" He comes back over to the bed to give Steve a quick peck on the cheek and shoot Bucky a soft but tired smile before leaving.

Bucky can almost make out Steve's features in the dim grey light just barely creeping in from the edges of the window. A memory he can't place comes unbidden: photographers call this light the blue hour. He doesn't know where he learned that or why, but he does know that right now, Steve is relieved. Steve is relieved that he doesn't have to find out for sure exactly what kind of burden Sam is carrying. Sam is currently either on the roof unable to block out the languages of every avian life form within telepathic hearing distance, or he's on the roof by himself talking to thin air. They don't have to confront it, and they can spend another day believing him.

Bucky reaches out his flesh hand for Steve's. They wait for Sam's return and don't fall back asleep.

Hours later, over a breakfast of frozen waffles because Sam is too tired to fry up their usual mess of eggs and bacon for them, Steve takes several deep breaths. He's clearly gearing himself up to say something, and Sam waits patiently for him to work up to whatever it is. 

Finally, after swallowing the last bite of what might honestly be his eighth waffle, Steve says, "I have a concern."

"You don't say," Sam says sarcastically, rolling his eyes, but the hints of a teasing smile chase around his face. "What's your concern?"

"I mean, I have a lot of concerns," Steve says dryly, giving it right back to Sam, "but my newest one is that there are a lot of birds in the world. And they were all fine before you came along, even if they couldn’t talk to each other to settle things. I'm just worried that there are so many conflicts out there vying for your attention that you'll get overwhelmed. I don't want you to get consumed by this. They don't need you for everything." _They don't need you like I do_ , is what he doesn't say.

"I'm not—" Sam reconsiders how to phrase this, how to assuage Steve's biggest fear. "I promise I won't get lost. They won't take me away from you. I'm only doing this because those birds are literally my neighbors. I don't just walk down the street helping to negotiate settlements between every single bird I see. If you even knew how many of them I—I'm good at filtering out all the extra noise. I've been practicing for my whole life, Steve."

Sam puts yet another waffle on Steve's plate. Steve takes it in his hand and dunks it into the pool of syrup on gathering on one side of his plate, like it's a cookie instead of something meant to be eaten with fork and knife. It keeps his mouth stuffed so he can't say anything stupid out of it.

"Anyway," Sam continues, "it's almost over. The hawk and the owl have agreed to meet each other face to face tomorrow, to finalize their peace treaty. After that, I'm done."

Steve makes a sound of grudging assent.

"I think it's kind of swell that our Sam is a bird diplomat," Bucky says mildly. 

Sam smiles at him. Steve does something complicated with his face.

*

Sam walks back into the bedroom when the sun is just beginning to come up. His skin is cold from the dawn air, but his eyes are warm when he proudly announces that everything has been settled and he can go back to sleeping the hours of a normal person.

"Good," Steve says, because he has spent some time planning exactly what he wants to say. "Because we really need your skills here. Me and Bucky are having a pretty severe 'territorial dispute' right here in this bed, and we need you to come help us 'solve' it." Even if the air quotes around the euphemisms weren't obvious from his voice, Sam could not possibly have missed what he's implying, because you could see his eyebrow waggles from space.

Sam laughs and let four hands pull him into bed.

**Author's Note:**

> 1 Pale Male is a real hawk of New York City, famous for both his urban dynasty and his many romantic exploits. You can read more about him [ on Wikipedia here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Male). [ return to story ]
> 
> Notes: This fic can be read as being set in the same universe as [Ornithomancy](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4408955). A longer and plottier sequel/companion piece is also being planned for that story. The title is a reference to "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" only in so much as I liked the sound of it, not because there are any deep connections. Thank you very much for reading, and feedback is gratefully appreciated here or [on tumblr](http://riseagainphoenix.tumblr.com/post/129314703797/a-hawk-an-owl-a-falcon-and-his-lovers).


End file.
